Being in the military is a lifestyle all its own. You might be a service personnel or the parent, spouse or child of someone in the armed forces. The military life touches everyone who loves someone serving in any one of the service branches whether it is the Marines, Navy, Army, Air Force, or National Guard. Military scrapbooking ideas all start with how the military life affects you.

Scrapbooking Ideas for Military Personnel

As a member of the armed forces, you will want to preserve and document your military experience. Recording your memories of your service years is important not only for yourself, but also for your children and future generations. Your years in the service are not only personal, but they document our national history as well. You might have served in a war or responded to a national crisis. Preserving your memories of those experiences will tell others your first-person account of a moment in history.

Items to Include In Your Military Scrapbook

• Your service documents including your enlistment application
• Newspaper articles
• Photos of you receiving recognition
• Photos of returning home from a duty station
• Photos of your military friends
• Photos of your service stations
• A time line of your years in service, including where and when you served
• Pages or quotes from your personal journal, including your hopes, fears, and thoughts
• Information on the training you received, including when and where you received training
• Photos of boot camp, including your graduation
• Awards and recognition with journaling on how, when and why you received them
• Photos of your metals and ribbons including how, when and why you received these honors
• Highlights of your military career
• Photos of ceremonies you participated in
• Your retirement party

Scrapbooking for Family Members of Military Personnel

Is someone you love in the armed forces? You may want to document their military career for them, or create a scrapbook about how that person's military life affected you. Being the spouse, child or parent of someone in the military, you will have your own thoughts, fears, feelings and hopes about his/her military life. Your scrapbook can be a gift for the military personnel or for someone else in their family, like a son or daughter. It also can be an account of how military life affected your own life experiences.

Items for Family Members to Include in a Military Scrapbook

• Photos of you with your loved one in the service
• Farewell photos
• Homecoming photos
• Journaling of your feelings about being part of a military family
• Moving day photos from one service station community to another
• Letters or emails written from your loved one in the armed forces
• Photos of military family events like picnics or formal parties
• Newspaper articles

Scrapbooking companies are responding to the huge demand for military scrapbooking supplies. You can find albums with armed forces emblems on the cover. Stickers and embellishments relating to the military service are also available. However, it's your own personal photos and journaling that will create a military scrapbook that will become a legacy to future generations.

Christine Perry is an avid scrapbooker and has over 10 years of scrapbooking experience. Her favorite scrapbooking subjects are her reluctant teenagers. She invites you to her website, http://www.intoscrapbooking.com for more scrapbooking ideas and scrapbooking ideas with kids.

Many of us have friends and family serving our country, and what better way to preserve their memories than some special military scrapbook pages.

I love the theme for this month being all about love. I discovered this adorable product line by ADORNit. Owls have been so hot and popular this year.

I work full time and my husband works away from home 4 days a week.  I have two boys under the age of 5.  So when I think scrapbooking I think quick, time savers that look sharp.  So when a company puts together a product line that matches, I go nuts!!!  You'll see how quick and easy this double layout goes together.

I selected to use the Owl Hoot A and cut it into two separate pieces.  I used my Provo Craft 12 inch trimmer a good bit.  After I selected my pictures I chose which elements out of the Owl kit I wanted to use.  I had 3 sheets of designer paper, 3 sheets of Bazzill card stock. a sheet of card stock stickers, and 12 inches of matching ribbon.

I used my Glue Glilder Pro for my adhesive to adhere my ribbon, pictures and paper.

I used s.e.i brads and the ADORNit Owl ribbon to accent along with the coordinating stickers.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you were able to see how with so few products you can create wonderful, fun layouts.  I only invested about $9.00 into these products and I was able to get another double page layout out of the kit.  PLUS I still have enough left over to do another 1 page layout or create a card with the scraps.

For this layout I used a 5x7 photo of my daughter, double matted the photo in coordinating blue and cranberry cardstock.  Created a red ribbon border  using three large white brads and a 3-D K and Company chipboard Christmas accent.  The photo is off-centered to the lower right corner of the designer paper and accented with coordinating red, blue and white felt snowflakes, which add texture to my layout.

Product Name: K and Company Chipboard Christmas Accent, Felt Snowflakes, Christmas Ribbon

Available at :  K and Company Chipboard Christmas Accent, Twopeasinabucket.com, Scrapbook.com.

Now its your turn  share your thoughts , photos, and  designs , I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend see you soon!

When it comes to scrapbooking, your imagination is the limit: literally. There are so many great things you can do with a scrapbook to make it personal so it’s really yours and it’s something so special to you. No two scrapbooks will ever be exactly alike, even if you are using the same templates and themes.

This is why there are even some scrapbooking supplies that you might not have thought of before. Talking with other people who scrapbook, reading online and subscribing to scrapbooking blogs and newsletters are all great ways to help you get ideas from other people who do scrapbooking as well.

Here are some ideas:

• Seashells from the beach
• Buttons from clothes or even purchased in a crafts store
• Pieces of colorful shoestrings
• Hair bows or hair fasteners
• Small rocks or sticks
• Pieces of favorite clothing
• Pieces of a favorite blanket or curtain
• Newspaper or magazine clippings
• Song lyrics
• Nursery rhymes and poetry

These are just a few creative ideas for scrapbooking supplies. You should feel encouraged to create your own and to be as creative as possible with your designs. This is your scrapbook and you can make it however you’d like.

Now that you know more about these scrapbooking supplies you might not have thought of before, you have new ideas to add to your arsenal. With each new idea that comes like this, you will continue to build on and grow with your scrapbooking experience. Happy scrapping!

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Explore the local shops: For many scrapbook artists, bargain scrapbooking supplies are a must. Looking for the cheap find is half the fun in scrapbooking. One of the options for you to land cheap scrapbooking supplies is to check out the entire department store. Many materials can be found not only between the aisles of arts and crafts shops, but also in places like the hardware store, or the book shop. When Christmas or Halloween comes, check out the different trinkets offered in the home décor section and you may find adorable materials such as ribbons to adorn your wedding scrapbook.

Online scrapbook goldmine: Shopping online is another way to add cheap scrapbook supplies to your kit. Because of the web's global scope, you can find providers selling supplies made out of exotic materials. Unlike the local department stores with limited supplies, going straight for the manufacturer's websites will give you more options and better supplies to choose from. Also, the internet is filled with many scrapbooking communities that will provide you links to the most ingenious craft materials available.

Flea market finds: Flea markets and garage sales are another excellent source of scrapbooking materials. Scour through the boxes and piles to discover materials that can be used for your next project. Be creative and look at the possibilities offered by seemingly non-scrapbook items. An old skirt could provide fabric that you can use to cover your album. Antiques often have decorative embellishments that you can take apart and fit in your pages.

Check your home:  Another and often neglected source of cheap scrapbooking materials is your own home. Look around for spare buttons, fabrics, old art papers, stickers and multi-colored pens that your children may have used and which you can apply to your own projects. A good spring cleaning for the seasoned scrapbook artists can often yield a variety of materials. Look around in the old boxes of trinkets you have stored in the attic, or check out the garage for spare nuts and bolts that can be used for a boyish-themed project.

Maximize your resources: Finally, maximize your own resources for creative scrapbook materials. If you have a scanner or camera, for instance, you can take snapshots of iconic images or scan textures and prints that you can store in your computer and reuse any number of times. Over time, a scrapbook artist will discover the skill of looking at the world through a different perspective, with an eye for new materials to use for scrapbook projects. Just remember, with scrapbooking, money doesn't have to be an issue.

Using embellishments to enhance your Album's Theme

Embellishments can really add to your album's unique design. When purchasing embellishments, it's easy to get caught up in how cute they are, how fun they look and so on. But, when designing your scrapbook you will probably want a certain look, have specific colors in mind, as well as patterns and even a theme. Therefore, before you go spending loads of money on embellishments you may never use, here are some tips to help you choose embellishments that will enhance your album's theme.

• Take a background page that you're going to use in your specific album to your favorite scrapbooking supply store when shopping for embellishments.
• When shopping for scrapbook supplies online, like here at My Scrapbook Supplies, purchasing packaged themes will help keep you focused on a particular theme. My Scrapbooking Supplies features many different theme packages to choose from.
• Shop for one album at a time to help you stay organized and focused. Purchase layouts, backgrounds and embellishments at the same time to help keep your theme uniform and stylish.
• Pre organize photos by event, chronologically or year to help determine a theme for a specific album before shopping for embellishments.

Types of Embellishments and some ideas for using them

There are literally thousands of different types of embellishments you can use to enhance your album's theme. Below are some of the most popular along with an idea or two.

• Ribbon and Fibers: Use ribbon and other fibers to frame photos or to secure photos at the corners.
• Stickers: Stickers are a great way to quickly enhance your scrapbook and there are all kinds of stickers to choose from. Finding a package or set of stickers won't be hard for your theme.
• Stenciling: Using acid and lignin free markers and pens along with some stencils will add a unique touch to your album. Stencils come in letters, shapes and numbers. Use block letter stencils to title a page for instance.
• Die cuts: Die cuts add depth and texture to an album's page. You can find packages of die cuts at really reasonable prices.
• Rubber Stamps: Stamping is fun and an easy way to give your album that added touch. Be sure to purchase acid free ink.
• Buttons: Buttons are cute and great for baby albums or perhaps a sewing theme.
• Bows: Bows are great for baby girls, or even a female dog theme.
• Photo corners: Photo corners come in different sizes and shapes and really help your photos stand out. They also provide added texture to your pages.
• Photo frames: Try framing just one photo on a page of 3 or 4 to make it stand out from the rest.
• Lettering: Using words throughout your album give it life. Using precut lettering, stencil lettering or in your own handwriting helps tell the story.

Before purchasing any embellishments for your album, be certain they are acid and lignin free to preserve your album and keep the photos and other papers from yellowing over the years. All embellishments, papers, adhesives, stickers and fibers sold here at My Scrapbooking Supplies are acid and lignin free.